(WASHINGTON, March 17, 2011) -- Independent Sector announces
that the 2010 estimate for the value of a volunteer hour has reached $21.36, an
increase from $20.85 per hour in 2009.
The release of this important figure comes before National Volunteer Week,
which takes place April 10–16, 2011. This week is meant to celebrate what
people are doing to improve communities across the nation.
“While the value of volunteers can be measured, we know that commitment volunteers put into helping millions of people is priceless,” said Diana Aviv, president and CEO of Independent Sector. “America’s tradition of giving back is very generous and should make us all proud. We continue to support and celebrate the volunteers for their selfless service.”
The valuation of volunteer time
provides one way to measure the impact millions of individuals make with each
hour they dedicate to make a difference. IS has also updated the breakdown
for the value of volunteer time in states and territories in 2009, which can be
found on the IS website.
The highest value of volunteer time in 2009 was $32.79 in Washington, D.C.
Nonprofits employ approximately 12.9 million workers - almost 10 percent of the
American work force – and account for about 5.2 percent of GDP. About 63.4
million Americans, or 26.8 percent of the adult population gave 8.1 billion
hours of volunteer service worth $169 billion in 2009; estimates for 2010 will
be released this summer. According to the Corporation for National Community
Service, this is an additional 1.6 million volunteers compared to 2008, making
2009 the largest single-year increase in the number of volunteers since 2003.
To access the numbers for every state and learn more about the hourly value of
volunteer time, visit http://www.independentsector.org/volunteer_time.
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Independent Sector is a nonprofit, nonpartisan coalition of approximately 550 nonprofits, foundations, and corporate philanthropy programs, collectively representing tens of thousands of charitable groups in every state across the nation. Its mission is to advance the common good by leading, strengthening, and mobilizing the nonprofit and philanthropic community. To learn more about Independent Sector, please visit: independentsector.org
